SG’s Doctor Anywhere goes everywhere all at once

This week On the Rise looks at Doctor Anywhere’s plans to double revenue, RedDoorz’s ideas on cost optimization, and an employee’s unsavory exit. [Read from your browser]( On the Rise 🚀 Welcome to On the Rise! Delivered every Tuesday via email and through the Tech in Asia website, this free newsletter breaks down the biggest stories and trends in emerging tech. If you’re not a subscriber, get access by [registering here](. Written by Shadine Taufik Journalist Hello {NAME} The past year has been a combination of wins and losses for me. My favorite basketball player, Kawhi Leonard, sat out a dozen games in the regular season after injuring his ACL. With new acquisition Russell Westbrook, the team has also lost five of its last eight games, marking a slow few months for the Clippers. At the same time, my club of choice Arsenal has topped the Premier League and is poised to qualify for the UCL in their first stint on European football’s biggest stage since 2017 (which I fully attribute to my lucky [bruised banana]( pajama pants). In my personal life, the gloomy weather and torrential rain have also taken an immense toll on my mood. But at least I have my two favorite new albums - Alex G’s God Save The Animals and The 1975’s Being Funny in a Foreign Language - to obsess over. On a more serious note, these extremes exist simultaneously in the business world as well. The past year has seen [large waves of layoffs]( affecting tech employees worldwide. However, some businesses have been flourishing regardless of the chaos, and Singapore-based Doctor Anywhere is one of them. In this week’s big story, my colleague Nikita talks about how the healthtech firm expects to double its revenue this year after generating around US$37 million in 2022. Though the peak of Covid-19 is behind us, it has left a lasting prioritization on health consciousness. This change in consumer behavior has become an opportunity for Doctor Anywhere to cater to segments such as mental health. Meanwhile, my colleague Collin’s story details hospitality firm RedDoorz’s cost-optimization strategies. More on this in Making Waves. Also, check out Redacted, a new section on tipoffs we’ve received. - Shadine  --------------------------------------------------------------- THE BIG STORY [Doctor Anywhere aims to double revenue to S$100m this year]( The healthtech startup expects its buyout of Asian Healthcare Specialists and its medical tourism efforts to drive up revenue this year.   ---------------------------------------------------------------  MAKING WAVES  [Behind RedDoorz’s cost optimization methods]( CEO Amit Saberwal, who established the hospitality startup in 2015, says founders tend to fall into certain pitfalls when optimizing costs.  --------------------------------------------------------------- REDACTED This is a series on what we’ve learned through the grapevine as well as tipoffs shared with Tech in Asia. A little birdie told us that an employee at Indonesia-based [redacted] recently quit the company alleging harassment from someone on the leadership team. When Tech in Asia reached out to the employee, they said they had faced attempted physical assault as well as verbal intimidation. The former employee added that it was the third instance of alleged harassment they had faced within the year. [Redacted]’s co-founder [redacted] told Tech in Asia that they weren’t aware of these allegations till after the employee had left. On pressing further, the co-founder said the company believes the allegations are false. While the former employee doesn't want to pursue the matter, they said startups should regularly have anti-harassment training sessions to make people better equipped to handle such incidents. Have a tipoff? Write to nikita.puri@techinasia.com  --------------------------------------------------------------- AI ODYSSEY Promising AI projects we’re noticing. Do you see what AI sees? I’ve always lived in the Cartesian dualist camp, certain of the mind-body divide. However, the quantification of vision and perception - particularly driven by advancements in AI - have made me a bit skeptical. In a recent development, scientists Shinji Nishimoto and Yu Takagi at Osaka University in Japan have [trained an AI model to generate images]( from what people are looking at. Though this [has been done in the past]( those methods were comparatively energy-intensive and complex, involving up to billions of training parameters. This current iteration utilizes Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image generator released by Stability AI, featuring a mere few thousand parameters. These came from preexisting data gathered from four participants who had their brains scanned with [fMRI]( while viewing 10,000 images. The researchers created two add-on models from the same dataset to make the tech compatible with brain signals. For the first model, Nishimoto and Takagi made links between the scans, which tracked the part of the brain that processes visual cues (the early visual cortex) and the photos being viewed. The second model was trained to connect text descriptions to the part of the brain that processes the meaning of images (the ventral visual cortex). This blended model was able to generate 1,000 images from brain imaging data alone with 80% accuracy. The AI wasn’t trained on the original images. The caveat here is that both models need to be tailored to each individual. They also varied in accuracy depending on which individual's data they were working with. Due to this, the AI is not yet viable for widespread use. Once it becomes more consistent, this tech is bound to generate new forms of creativity in the visual arts and further support our understanding of AI and the mind. -- Shadine  --------------------------------------------------------------- FYI 1️⃣ [Scrutinizing Amazon’s and Tesla’s Malaysian deals]( The two titans are rumored to be investing in the country. But how big will their commitments be? 2️⃣ [Want to save time and money on graphic design? Use AI]( A study found that a generative AI platform can complete a graphic design task much faster and cheaper compared to a human.  --------------------------------------------------------------- NEWS YOU SHOULD KNOW Also check out Tech in Asia’s coverage of the emerging tech scene [here](. 1️⃣ [Heavy machinery gets an AI pickup]( Singapore-based Groundup AI has secured US$1.8 million in a seed funding round led by Wavemaker Partners. 2️⃣ [Android, MD]( Indonesia-based healthtech platform Alodokter has released Alni, a chat-based virtual assistant for doctors. 3️⃣ [More money for AI]( After launching its AI-powered Einstein GPT program, US software giant Salesforce announced that it has committed US$250 million to invest in global AI startups. 4️⃣ [Cruising down Hanoi in my EV]( Vingroup chairman Pham Nhat Vuong has launched an electric taxi and rental service in Vietnam, which is powered by VinFast scooters and cars. 5️⃣ [Shades on for this eyewear firm’s bright future]( India’s Lenskart is about to close a US$500 million fundraise from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which will bring its valuation to US$4 billion.  --------------------------------------------------------------- That’s it for this edition - we hope you liked it! Do also check out previous issues of the newsletter [here](. Not your cup of tea? You can unsubscribe from this newsletter by going to your “edit profile” page and choosing that option in our preference center. See you next week! [ADVERTISE]( | [SUBSCRIBE]( | [HIRE]( | [FIND JOBS]( P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Too many emails? Switch to a different frequency or get new content through our [preference center]( or [unsubscribe](. You can also break our hearts and remove yourself from all Tech in Asia emails over [here](  Copyright © 2023 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 63 Robinson Road, Singapore 068894